Sarla Aviation 与 Hexcel 计划开展复合材料合作，用于印度 eVTOL

Indian eVTOL developer Sarla Aviation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hexcel covering a potential long-term supply and technology partnership for the composite materials used in its aircraft. Under the proposed collaboration, Sarla intends to purchase Hexcel aerospace-grade prepregs and carbon and glass fibre reinforcements for its airframe, as well as honeycomb core, adhesives and surfacing films for primary and secondary structures.

Hexcel would also provide engineering support for material selection and structural design, while the two companies plan to work together on material testing and qualification against applicable airworthiness requirements. For Sarla, material selection is closely linked to the performance targets of its eVTOL aircraft, for which structural mass directly affects payload, range and battery requirements.

“For an eVTOL, structural weight is a primary design driver. Every kilogram in the airframe is a kilogram taken from payload, range or battery,” Sarla Aviation says in its LinkedIn post announcing the MoU, published on 25 August. The partnership with Hexcel is also intended to bring material and certification considerations into the programme at an early stage. Sarla says the objective is to work with materials that already have an established track record in certified aerospace applications.

“Choosing qualified aerospace materials early is what keeps a programme on schedule later,” Sarla Aviation says. The company added that the collaboration would cover development, qualification and production, combining Hexcel’s materials and engineering support with Sarla’s aircraft development programme.

From technology demonstrator to passenger eVTOL

Based in Bengaluru, Sarla Aviation is developing electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft for urban and regional air mobility in India. Its passenger aircraft programme centres on Shunya, an eVTOL unveiled at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo in Delhi in January 2025 and designed around a six-passenger configuration.

The company has meanwhile been using its Sylla technology demonstrator to validate the technologies and systems required for the future passenger aircraft. In July 2026, Sarla announced the completion of the Sylla 1.0 flight-test campaign after more than 500 tests and over 18 hours of flight testing. The half-scale demonstrator is a 700 kg-class aircraft with a 7.5-metre wingspan.

According to Sarla, Sylla 1.0 was developed to evaluate the integration of the electric propulsion system, battery architecture, distributed propulsion, flight-control algorithms, airframe and landing gear under operating conditions. The company has now begun development of Sylla 2.0, which is intended to demonstrate controlled transition between vertical and wing-borne flight — one of the key technological steps before development of a certifiable passenger eVTOL.

Sarla also reached a regulatory milestone in August 2026 when it received Design Organisation Approval from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The approval establishes the organisation and processes under which the company can develop aircraft towards certification. Against this backdrop, the MoU with Hexcel brings composite material selection into the programme while Sarla is still progressing from technology demonstration towards a certifiable aircraft. The company presents this approach as part of a broader ambition to combine aircraft development in India with established aerospace materials technology.

“India won’t just adopt Advanced Air Mobility. It has the opportunity to define how it is engineered,” Sarla Aviation concludes.

Photo: Sarla Aviation